A Cripple Creek Tale
By Calvin Otto

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The rich mining history of Cripple Creek, Colorado was well documented even before Cal Otto began visiting what was then a ghost town in the early 1950s. But the stories told were about mines, miners, and mine owners.  There was very little written about the town's thriving commercial life during the gold rush years of the 1890s. When Otto began acquiring the ephemera that traced the growing clothing business of Moritz Glauber he set out to fill that historical void. An expanded version of his Glauber portrait was presented during Ephemera 25 in Old Greenwich, CT.

If someone hadn't saved all those neatly tied bundles of random papers, Moritz Glauber probably would have remained just another anonymous cipher, one of the thousands who came, put down shallow roots, and then disappeared along with the gold from Cripple Creek, Colorado.

The story of Glauber, a 19th century cloth merchant, is drawn from business papers and letters found in two wooden crates in the basement of Glauber's last store in Cripple Creek in the late 1950s. Reflecting typical record management methods of the 19th century the papers were folded, tied in bundles, and then wrapped in imprinted store paper with the month and year noted on the wrapper. Each document has a notation of "date received" and "sender" written on the reverse by the recipient. The Glauber collection is comprised of approximately 1,500 documents and checks covering the period 1893-1900.

The Cripple Creek Mining District is located 25 miles southwest of Colorado Springs. It is a hard rock gold mining area discovered by Bob Womack in 1890. The district population grew from 15 people to more than 50,000 by 1900. The Cripple Creek of 1893 was a hastily built town of wooden buildings and a few tents with a population of 12,500 people. It could boast 26 saloons, 11 dance parlors, 24 grocery stores, and 11 clothing establishments.

The town was bustling with people, the noise of horses, stagecoaches, mines changing shifts, and the euphoria of rapid growth. It was a boomtown where garbage disposal was performed by burros known as "mountain canaries" that went from house to house eating the kitchen refuse thrown out by the miners. There was electricity but no central water system.

At its apex it was one of the largest cities in Colorado. While Cripple Creek prospered the rest of the country was in a financial panic as farm prices fell, and national unemployment was at 20%. The district had it famous sons in radio news commentator Lowell Thomas and the boxer Jack Dempsey, but most residents were anonymous miners, merchants, and camp followers.

Into this boomtown in the rarefied air at 9,494 feet wandered Moritz Glauber.

Several letters indicate Glauber was a traveling salesman representing the M. Schwartz wholesale clothing company of Denver before moving to Cripple Creek. The ephemera offers no evidence as to how or exactly when he settled in Cripple Creek, but as a Denver-based salesman he likely called on the established clothing stores in the district and envisioned its potential growth. He had numerous relatives and connections in the clothing trade in Denver, New York City, and Chicago, which probably helped him start in business.

Glauber was in his late 20s when he opened The Globe Shoe and Clothing House on Bennett Avenue, the main street of Cripple Creek. A receipt shows he paid $50 a month to rent the building. His basic business was retail, but he also sold to other clothing stores in adjacent towns.

According to the 1920 census Moritz Glauber was born in Bohemia in 1867. He was married to a German-born woman named Elsa who was 19 years old in 1900. They had two children born in Colorado, Wilma in 1901, and Jerrold in 1902, and a third child born in Chicago in 1906.  An 1898 Cripple Creek National Hotel bill shows Moritz paying "30 Days Board $23.25." In 1900 he was paying rent on a house on 123 Carr Street just a few blocks from his store. These receipts for living accommodations, revealing his changing status from hotel to home, suggest he was married between these dates. He also had two sisters and a brother. We know of other family members during his tenure in Cripple Creek. Karl and Theodore Glauber were store clerks. Because they were in their teens it is probable that they were Moritz Glauber's nephews by his brother. His sister Anna and her two boys also lived in Cripple Creek. Several letters also mention his other sister Alvia living in Cripple Creek during this period. 

Glauber was an aggressive merchant competing with many clothing stores in Cripple Creek and surrounding towns.  The competition from the other clothing merchants would have been fierce considering the small town population in 1893. Some of the sales techniques used by his competitors included advertising wagons drawn by dogs and display banners placed directly at the mines. Glauber also advertised using street displays and banners at mine sites, as well as various local event programs and newspapers.

But his promotional schemes weren't limited to the mundane. A receipt from the Fremont Electric Light and Power Co. dated March 1894 is for installation and rental of special lights for "10 nights." This was probably an outdoors promotional event. A bill from The Colorado Springs Gazette led to some display advertisements. One ad offered an unidentified inducement "With every $1.00 purchase you will get a Grand Prize Ticket at the Globe Shoe and Clothing House." No ticket for this drawing was found in the ephemera so we don't know anything about the "Grand Prize." A ticket for a similar drawing on July 4, 1898 promised "The Prize is a ticket to the Klondyke, or, if you prefer, $350.00 in cash." This was a lot of money at a time when the average miner's wage was less than $3.50 a day. The winner took the money.

In spite of the competition his letters and purchase orders show a steady growth in business. By 1896 the town population had tripled to 36,000. A conflagration on April 26, 1896 leveled most of the town but spared the Globe store. However, six days later a second fire finished destroying the town along with Glauber's store. Thanks to inventory insurance he was able to quickly re-establish his business.

Glauber opened his second store later in 1896 in a new brick building on the opposite side of Bennett Avenue. The name was changed to The Globe Mens Outfitters, "M Glauber, Proprietor." The documents are vague on the question of whether he owned or rented the space, but his stationery, checks, receipts, and letterheads all bore an engraving of the new store, and photographs reveal "M. GLAUBER" was set in stone at the top of the building. (Like many mining towns in the West, Cripple Creek went through typical boom-to-bust cycles and was revived as a gambling town in 1990. Glauber's second building remains today, but his name was replaced with "1896" when the building was converted to a gambling saloon called The Brass Ass.)

Purchase orders and letters from his vendors also indicate he was prospering. There are many illustrated letterheads from vendors in the collection, but few posters. Of the posters found, one is from the Pershing Company of Chicago, stating that one of its representatives would be in Cripple Creek "Sometime in August" to handle special tailoring needs. A bill from a local printer is another example of Glauber's merchandising activities revealing that he ordered "5000 posters and 200 on cardboard." No Glauber poster was found.

Glauber's newspaper advertising and sales slips offer a snapshot of what well-dressed miners were paying for clothes and accessories in raw outposts like Cripple Creek. He sold wool suits for $5.75 and shoes for $2.00. His ads also pitched some upscale "Our Selz World's Fair Prize Winners (shoes) at $3, $3.50, $4, and $5."

As Glauber prospered in the clothing trade he also bought mining claims and perhaps was caught up in the booming real estate trade in city lots. Even with his new store Glauber was looking ahead to an even larger establishment. Soon after opening the second store, he commissioned an agent to develop a detailed report on the Weinberg Clothing Company which was located on the prime Bennett Avenue & Third Street corner. The report valued the Weinberg property at $40,000 and suggested Weinberg was in good financial shape. Fortunately for Glauber, the agent's information was more fool's gold than the real stuff — the Weinberg Company went bankrupt in 1897, and Glauber moved into the Weinberg building in mid-1897, changing the name to "M. Glauber."

His promotions from then on primarily spotlighted the store's location. A 1901 ad in The Miners' Magazine simply lists his business as "Glauber's on the Corner." The same ad states that he was "A thoroughly union, up to date and wide awake house" and that "The people's patronage is liberally bestowed upon us and, we might add, deservedly so." He clearly had great confidence in his business and felt the corner store location was very important to his trade. Even his letterheads and business forms were no longer fashioned with an engraving of the store, but only the line "Glauber's Cor. Third and Bennett Ave." But he did continue to promote the store and his merchandise.

A metal token, about the size of a silver dollar, promised: "The holder of this check will be allowed 50 cents rebate on any suit or overcoat." It would be interesting to know how he distributed the token. He continued to advertise in local and regional newspapers and with ads placed in the many fraternal magazines. A three-dimensional street sign showing a man holding a traveling bag advertising the Glauber Clothing store, was also found with the ephemera, but was discarded. The figure in the sign might well be a portrait of Glauber. The sign was later rescued and is now in the Cripple Creek museum. 

It's not clear from the ephemera if he rented or purchased the former Weinberg building. Many receipts going back to June 1897 show rent payments for "store" or "rooms & 1st floor" of the Weinberg building. Since the building covers a whole block on Third Street it is possible he only purchased the store portion and rented the other areas. An indication that he may have owned the building is a listing in a 1902-1903 Cripple Creek street directory that refers to the location as the "Glauber Block." He also may have rented with an option to buy as one letter talks about setting a price for the building.
   
We can only speculate on why Glauber sold his business and left Cripple Creek in 1902. While the business prospered, young Glauber was suffering from acute rheumatism. A letter from a Denver lawyer in 1899 states that he "hears that Glauber has desires to sell your place."  This was also a period of labor unrest in the mines. Most likely he witnessed the decline in mining activity and population and had the financial acumen and business savvy to sell while still on top and return east.

A week after the Ephemera News deadline I found new information covering the 1902-1913 period and, with some arm twisting, was able to insert this material. This new information revealed that an Adolph Beer was the proprietor of the competing May Clothing Co. in 1900 and was the person who purchased Glauber's in 1902.  He retained Karl & Theodore Glauber as sales clerks at least until 1905.  By 1912-13 ownership of the May Clothing Company is listed as the Glauber-Beer Co.  Since we know from the census records that Theodore Glauber settled in Idaho as a clothing store proprietor it's probable that Karl was the new partner in the firm. The evidence also suggests that the Cripple Creek May Clothing Co. was not affiliated with the May D&F Department Stores.  A 1913 check to M. Glauber for $300.00 written on a Cripple Creek bank suggests he was receiving payments from the May Company for the store or inventory.  This business relationship also explains the post-1902 papers found in the Glauber ephemera.

Moritz's movements after selling his Cripple Creek store are difficult to track. We know he had a third child born in Chicago in 1906. Since he frequently traveled to Chicago on business and to visit relatives, it is possible that between his health and family he was offered a business opportunity in the Midwest. The 1910 census lists him as a lumber manufacturer in Tennessee. In 1920 he is living in New York City with his wife and two school age children.  We find him 10 years later still in New York City, but living alone as a proprietor in the hat business. But here the trail grows cold.

While we may never know the complete story of this enterprising clothing dealer, his prosperous years in a bustling Colorado mining town live on thanks to bundles of ephemera found in two large wooden crates in the cellar of the abandoned Weinberg Building in the 1950s. Cripple Creek was a ghost town then. Buildings were open and you could wander at will through the quiet halls and rooms.  You could have purchased most of the town for back taxes.  Since the town was revived as a gambling center in 1990 the old buildings have long ago been emptied of their artifacts and ephemera of the past.